Faculty Policy and Protocol

1.

Purpose of the Protocol

The purpose of this protocol is to affirm the Faculty’s commitment to upholding academic honesty in all programmes and courses, to ensure consistency in the handling of plagiarism across the Faculty of Arts, and to alert students to the importance of avoiding plagiarism and the academic and disciplinary consequences it entails.

In keeping with the University and Faculty’s view of plagiarism as a serious academic offence, the Board of Examiners for Taught Postgraduate Curricula (BoE) has approved the practice set out below, to be followed by all teaching units and examiners.

2.

Handling of Plagiarism

(a)

The University perceives plagiarism from three perspectives: as an instructive process, as matter of assessment and as a form of disciplinary misconduct. Students who have committed plagiarism may be subject to one or more of the following consequences depending on the seriousness of the offence:

(i)

As part of the educative process, the teacher will alert the students about proper academic practice. The teachers may take appropriate educative measures in individual cases of plagiarism, including but not limited to any of the following:

A requirement to rewrite and resubmit the work concerned; and/or

(ii)

As part of the assessment process, the teacher will decide whether to recommend to the BoE that the student should be given a failed or reduced grade;

(iii)

As part of the disciplinary process, the teacher will decide whether to lodge a complaint with the Disciplinary Committee (DC) against the student by writing to the Registrar (within 1 month from the time when the matter of complaint arose). The Vice-Chancellor will then take one of the following actions:

(1)

dismiss the case (where it is considered that the complainant has not established a prima facie case for complaint); or

(2)

issue a strong reprimand letter; or

(3)

refer the case to the DC for a formal hearing.

(b)

The BoE has approved the practice set out below, to be followed by all teaching units and examiners:

(i)

All teaching units publicize warnings against plagiarism via the School/ Centre websites, programme handbooks or course materials;

(ii)

A student who is found to have committed plagiarism will be confronted with the offence by the teacher or Chief Examiner, either at a meeting or in writing;

(iii)

The teacher in consultation with the Chief Examiner concerned, assesses the seriousness of the offence and determines the appropriate penalty in terms of the examination result, which shall in any case be not less than a failure in the assignment or examination where plagiarism has occurred;

(iv)

The teacher in consultation with the Chief Examiner concerned, may, depending on the seriousness of the case, in addition pursue any of the following disciplinary actions:

(1)

a warning letter to be issued by the relevant Programme or teaching unit;

(2)

a warning letter to be issued by the Associate Dean (Postgraduate);

(3)

a complaint to be lodged with the DC against the disciplinary misconduct of the student by writing to the Registrar (within 1 month from the time when the matter of complaint arose).

(v)

Chief Examiners will report established cases of plagiarism to the Secretary of the BoE at the time of the submission of examination results each semester. A summary of all cases of plagiarism and the sanctions imposed will be reported to the BoE with the examination results of the students concerned. A record of the established case of plagiarism will be kept in the student file and the central register maintained by the Academic Support and Examination Section of the Registry.

December 6, 2019